TWO British missionaries were sentenced to a year's hard labour yesterday after criticising the government regime in Gambia.

TWO British missionaries were sentenced to a year's hard labour yesterday after criticising the government regime in Gambia.

David Fulton, originally from Troon, Ayrshire, and his wife, Fiona, have worked and lived in the country since 1996.

The Pentecostal Christian couple, who have two grown-up children and an adopted two-year-old daughter, were sent to prison for sending a letter to individuals and groups, criticising the government of the mainly Muslim country.

In the capital, Banjul, Judge Edrissa Mbai told the couple: "In this country there is a law that one has to obey, whether Gambian or non-Gambian."

Defence lawyer Antoumane Gaye said his clients had been working to help Gambia for years.

Mr Fulton is currently detained at high-security Mile Two prison outside the capital Banjul. It is described as a "tough" former colonial jail built during the days of the British Empire.

Mrs Fulton, 46, was held with their two-year-old adopted daughter at a police station in the capital.

She has worked with other missionaries to look after terminally ill people while her 60-year-old husband is a chaplain to the Gambian army.

Her brother, Stuart McMinn, 40, a computer engineer, of Teignmouth, Devon, said he learned of the sentence via the internet.

He said: "There are no clear channels of communication.

"We are in contact with some of their friends in Gambia but the information is only coming through in dribs and drabs."

The couple met when Mr Fulton, a former British Army major, was serving a jail term for armed robbery in Devon.

Mrs Fulton was a prison visitor talking about Christianity and he converted.